‘Don’t politicise issues but understand them’

KUCHING: Kuching South City Council mayor Datuk James Chan has advised people to stop politicising every little issue in the south city area but instead look into the problem and understand its cause.

“There are many concerns and complaints centred in the south city area, from leakage to sewage problems, flooding and even Zika disease recently. But not everything needs to be politicised,” he told reporters yesterday, referring to criticisms levelled against MBKS in the newspapers.

Elaborating further, Chan shared that officers would go down to check and rectify any problem on the day after receiving a complaint but it would require time to fix the issue.

“For example, blockage problem in drains, we found out that there was a lot of garbage like tissue papers stuck in there. Could it be man-made, in which human activities are contributing to the pollution or is it due to structural design?” he asked.

Taking these into consideration, Chan pointed out that people need to figure out and understand the source or cause of problems in order to find ways to fix them.

“Don’t just criticise MBKS for not carrying out their responsibilities when we see or hear of any problem. I don’t want to get involved in politics, I just want to serve the rakyat,” he stressed.

He further assured that MBKS would try to solve the many problems and issues faced by the people within the council’s means and resources.

“We are not trying to shift the problems away but we need to go broad and deep around the problem to get the big picture,” he said.

Giving another example, Chan said the government and local councils were aware of the urgency to address flooding, reminding that politicising the issue would not help at all.

“Sometimes too many voices can’t help to solve the problem,” he added.

“We have received many calls to get fogging done to rid mosquito breeding grounds due to Zika disease. But I understand that over- fogging might allow mosquitoes to become resistant,” he explained.

“But the main source of the problem in residential areas is the septic tank cover which could be cracked and broken. It needs to be replaced,” he pointed out.

He reminded that it was the duty of every person to the keep the city and the environment clean.